Nightmares (And How to deal with them)
by rex1011amit
Summary: Eri has a nightmare. She calls someone to help her with it and all it implies. Cross-posted on AO3, fifth in a series of cute Eri one shots (though cute probably isn't the right word here).


She's in pieces.

He has reached out and broken her again, ripped her to shreds and let her flesh rot. He watches her waste away, eyes frozen and dead in his skull as he waits, waits for the last possible moment, just as her soul begins to leave and the pain starts to numb, before he reaches out again to yank her back down.

She's whole again, every bone in her body shattered yet in one piece, every inch of her screaming in pain and yet for a moment she can only stare upwards silently, a second later her eyes water and she cries, her ruined body shaking and falling apart with her sobbing, and yet he still stares at her, a corpse watching a corpse.

"This is your fault," He says, voice cutting through her in one stroke, cold and sharp and shameless, "This will always be your fault, your curse, all of it, do you understand?"

She cries, she cries and wails and sobs, she can't answer, and can only hope this satisfies him.

"Good, never forget that, never forget me," He leans in, he stinks of too much bleach and not enough anesthetic, the stench of it crawls into her mouth and chokes her cries, and then he speaks, and his voice is a tombstone, hard and above death, "You will never forget me Eri."

She wakes up.

She's bolted straight up in her bed, her forehead soaked with sweat that traps her hair on her scalp, the rest of her long strands sticking to the back of her neck. Her face is sopping wet, and her heart races in her chest, pounding against her ribcage hard enough to bruise.

She woke up with a gasp, instead of a scream, so it's a bit of progress, at least.

She waits, waits for hurried footsteps outside her door, after a few minutes, or an eternity the dark makes it hard to tell, she still hears nothing, and is glad for it, waking people up, waking up Izuku and Ochako, three night in a row because of the same nightmare would only make her feel worse.

Her lower lip tastes of copper, she just now notices, she had bitten it in her sleep as he approached her, as she always does when the pain comes, in order to brace herself until it passes.

Weeks later, months later, and still he controls her, still makes her flinch.

Behind bars and miles away and below her and still she is afraid.

Numbly, she gets off her bed, not sparing a look to her clock to see how much sleep she managed this time, knowing it will only make her feel worse. She softly pads over to her bedroom door barefoot, opening it as softly as she can manage before she enters the hallway and closes it behind her.

She walks past Izuku's room, stopping for only a fraction of a second, the thought of opening his door with her keycard and crawling into his bed, again, invading her mind before she dismisses it, she's bothered him enough; he needs to sleep more than she does, with all the things he's done for her already.

Somehow, she manages to walk all the way down to the common room without registering the distance, she wanted to come here, though she can't think of a reason way, her legs worked without her consent or direction, and now she stood in the middle of the room where the class, her friends (**family**) make her food and watch TV with her, where they talk about their day and help her not think of…anything, but now she is alone.

And in the muted darkness of the room, her thoughts deafen her.

She feels her way in the shadows, her hand touching the soft and chilly leather of the couch, and she climbs on, settling on her side as she hugged herself and leaned her head on the back rest. She stayed like this for a moment, the numbness she only now notices leaving her body by inches, and as it does her breath hitches, she breathes in and out, tries to hold it back, but the darkness presses down on her.

She clamps a hand to her mouth to muffle the wrenching sob that climbs out of her, clawing through her throat as she screams into her palm.

She lays like that, shaking and crying, for a few minutes, waiting out the pain until it passes, leaving her drained and a bit relieved that no one saw her as she sat up and leaned back on the couch, looking up at the ceiling in the silence of the empty common room.

She needs to find a way to silence her agitated thoughts; she can feel another outburst building up in her chest.

She doesn't want to go back to sleep, a bird headed shadow looms over her tired thoughts still, waking up anyone in the building is out of the question as far as she's concerned, there's school tomorrow, getting a glass of water or a snack doesn't seem worth the effort it would take to lift herself from the couch.

She can feel herself sinking into the leather; she doesn't want to get up, the leather is cool and soft and seems to slow down her thoughts, though still they rattle in her head, what can she do?

Her face falls to her right, lining up her eyes with the sight of the home phone of the dorms, its black plastic shining quietly in the dark. Her thoughts drift away from her, a phone number rising up in their stead. The thought of waking that person up upsets her just as much as waking up anyone else…but the phone is closer.

Her chest tightens again, and she makes a decision.

She crawls on the couch towards it, picking up the phone and dialing the number in her head as she sits in the corner of the couch that lays between the back and one of the armrests, sinking again into the deep, cold leather as the dial tone beeps mindlessly in her ear.

Mirio Toogata wakes with a start. His breathing is rapid and his skin clammy with sweat. The first thing he does when his senses return is check his skull, to see that he still has it.

It was the same nightmare again, the same nightmare for a week now.

A little girl reached out her hand, silently screaming for help, just as he reaches to grab her, a bird shaped shadow looms over, and with a lazy swipe of its black wings she breaks apart before his eyes, falling to pieces at his feet just barely out of reach.

He gets up to his feet to fight this shadow, but then it reaches with its wing for him, and with a single touch to his forehead, he sees from outside his body as his head pops off his shoulders in a gory mess, and a second later he wakes up.

He gets up from his bed with a weary sigh, walking to his kitchen to get something to drink and sit on his couch for a moment before he goes back to try to sleep again. He smacks his head on his door when he walked into it, his sleep deprived mind forgetting to remind him he can't walkthrough it anymore, he clenches his teeth and lets out a harsh breath through them as he pushes his door open just a bit more forcefully then he needs to.

Two months later, and he still can't get used to it.

Taking a deep breath he keeps walking, trying to be as quiet as he can as he passes his father's door, when a sudden ringing back in his room makes him jump with a yelp, "What in the-?"

"Mirio…" Comes the tired voice of his dad from the inside of his bedroom, "Why is someone calling your cellphone at 1:30 in the morning?"

"Beats me!" He calls over his shoulder as he races back to his room to answer, "I'll tell them to call back in the morning! Sorry Dad!" He can hear the muffled sounds of his father turning in his bed and going back to sleep as he entered his bedroom, a blinking light and blaring ringtone signaling where his phone is next to his bed, he reaches for it and answers the call without looking at the caller ID, "Toogata residence, do you know how late it-"

"M-Mirio-san?" The soft voice stops him in his tracks, it sounds hoarse and scratchy, as if the speaker had been crying a good long while, "I-I dialed the number y-you gave me and-"

"Eri-chan?" It took him a moment to recognize the voice, but once he did a pit formed in his stomach from worry, she sounded awful, "Y-you okay? What are you doing up so late?"

A shuffling sound came from the other side followed by a sniff before she answered," I-I'm…fine, I j-just…couldn't sleep." Another shuffling sound came from her, along with a sigh, Eri continuing before Mirio could say anything "I-I'm sorry I shouldn't have called so late," Mirio felt panic rise up in his stomach, she sounded like she was going to start crying, "I'm s-sorry I w-woke you u-up I'll just-"

"Wait! No! Don't hang up!" He said a bit too loudly, peaking outside his door afterwards to see if it woke up his dad before he closed his door and turned back to his phone, "It's okay Eri-chan, you didn't wake me up, I couldn't sleep either."

He chuckled a bit, hoping it would help and after a long beat of silence she came back, "O-okay…why not?"

He shrugged out of habit before making a non-committed noise, "No reason, just not tired I guess." He pushed the image of her falling apart before his eyes to the back of his head. He walked over to his bed and sat on the side of it, keeping the phone to his ear, smiling even though she couldn't see it, "What about you? It's a bit past your bedtime isn't it?" Another long beat of silence fell down the line, Mirio feeling that panic rise back in his throat, smile wilting, "Eri-chan?"

A barely audible gulp sounded from the other side, "I…" She started, sounding miserable, "I had a nightmare."

His heart dropped, "Oh." He muttered, at a loss, piecing together exactly why Eri called him, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to think of something, "Well…that's okay, everyone has nightmares," He cringed as soon as he said it, hurriedly adding onto that, "I mean…want to talk about it? Might make you feel better…"

A long pause was his answer, follow by another quiet sniff, "It was about him," The name hang in the air and landed on his head, weighing down his shoulders without needing to be said, "He-he was h-hurting m-me…" He heard her start to stutter more, taking sudden breaths in the middle of her words, "He w-was getting close t-to me a-and-"

"Eri-chan-"

"And I was so scared an-and I c-couldn't breathe a-and…" She sobbed through the phone, "I-I don't wanna be s-scared a-anymore!" The sobbing continued on the other side of the line, he could practically hear her rubbing at her tears, "I don't wanna feel so weak anymore! It's been two months already what's wrong with me I-"

"Eri-chan!" He called, voice stern, "Eri-chan, focus on my voice okay? Breathe." He heard her take a few shaky breaths before her sobbing started to calm ever so slightly, "Now Eri-chan, what I'm about to say is very important so you need to listen carefully, okay?"

After a few more shaky breaths he heard her speak again, "O-okay…"

He steadies his breathing and considers his words for a moment, "It's only been two months Eri-chan,"

"W-what are-"

"It's only been two months," He repeats, voice stern and strong, "No one is asking you to just...bounce back just like that after everything that happened to you Eri-chan," He suppresses the shudder that passes through him at the memory of that day, all those vile words that Chisaki spouted, the piercing phantom pain in his shoulder he could still feel if he thinks about it too much, he pushes it to the furthest part of his mind where it can bother him later, she needs to hear this, "Stuff like this…doesn't just go away, it'll take time, a long time before you start feeling better…so you shouldn't be ashamed of feeling scared."

"But you're not!" Came the slightly desperate shout, the girl hiccupping, "You're not having nightmares!"

He rubbed his head in frustration; he shouldn't have said that, "Eri-chan…I am." He leaned back on his head post, closing his eyes as he rubbed his face to keep himself a little more awake, "I am having nightmares."

"B-but…" She stuttered, sounding a bit taken aback, "But y-you said…"

"I lied," He breathed out through his teeth, "I lied Eri-chan, I didn't want you to worry about me…but I shouldn't have lied." He takes another deep breath before a chuckle escapes him, "I've been having the same one for about…a week actually, about Chisaki…about him hurting you and me not being able to do anything…"

"But you did!" She stopped him, her voice suddenly more steady, "Y-you did save me! You and Izuku-san got me out of there! And you-" She halted, her voice getting a bit shakier as she took in an unsteady breath, "Y-y-you lost your Quirk because of me…"

"Eri-chan," He pleaded, dread filling his stomach at her words, "I told you it-"

"He told me it was my fault." She stated miserably, "In the dream, always, that it's all, my fault," Another sob escaped her, "And he's right, he always was, all of it is my fault if you didn't need to save me you would still-"

"He lied to you Eri-chan," He said, standing up on instinct, rage making his fist shake as he thought of all the revolting things Chisaki could have said to make her think like that, "He always lied to you, he hurt people, he made those Quirk erasing bullets, he hurt you, all of that is on him, and absolutely none of it is your fault, it will never be," He takes one last breath to calm his rage, a man behind bars isn't worth his energy, "Never forget that Eri-chan, never."

A long stretch of silence was his answer, before a single tiny, tired yet calm sob broke it, "B-but…you lost your Quirk…because you saved me…you were," She hiccupped, "You were amazing with it…"

He sighed with a chuckle, "Don't worry about my Quirk Eri-chan," He stage whispered into his phone, "If I'm being honest, it wasn't that good a Quirk anyway, it was a hassle to learn how to control it even a little, and don't get me started on how much work it was to use it in a fight." He was telling the truth, training and learning how to control his power was equal parts nightmare and nearly impossible task, he didn't say how rewarding it was to finally master it, how exhilarating it was to use it freely for the first time, that would negate his point, "Honestly all the physical training I did probably helped me more in that fight then my Quirk did."

"B-but," She stuttered again, sounding unconvinced, "But w-without it y-you…"

"I can still help people!" He reasoned simply, shrugging again out of habit, "With all my training and qualifications, I could probably be a police officer!" A weak smile stretched on his face, "They save people too you know, a lot of people!" He forced a chuckle, trying to grin to make it sound more natural, "I mean, yeah maybe not a million people but," His grin thinned with each word he said, "Y'know I still can…though I probably wouldn't be able to call myself Lemillion anymore," He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, not noticing that Eri hasn't said anything since he started, "But officer Toogata! That sounds pretty cool right!?"

"You still can."

Her sudden words wiped the smile off his face, "What did you say Eri-chan?"

"You can still call yourself Lemillion," She said, resolutely, confidently, "Nothing will change that."

He felt his eyes water, "E-Eri-chan…"

"You'll always be Lemillion to me."

He puts a hand to his mouth, biting his lower lip to keep from doing something that Eri might hear, tears falling freely from his face as he stood stock still, unable to move at her words, nothing coming to mind to answer what she just said. Two months of self-pity, of anger at not being quick enough, of thinking that everything he did for over a decade was wasted in one small moment of lapsed focus, hearing that little girl put that much faith in him was…almost too much.

"Mirio-san?" Came a worried voice, the confident edge it held just a moment before gone, "Mirio-san are you still there?" A worried whine escaped her, "I'm sorry if that was-"

"Thank you Eri-chan," He managed thickly, sniffing and rubbing his eyes while a soft smile lit up his face, "I mean it; I really needed to hear that." Wiping his face and clearing his throat he couldn't keep from laughing, "Look at me," He chuckles in earnest, still trying to keep it done so his dad wouldn't wake up, "Shouldn't I be comforting you in this here?" He falls back on his bed, lying on his mattress with his legs hanging off the ledge and touching the floor, "This is totally backwards."

"No! No!" She quickly reassured through the phone, the sound of someone shuffling around coming back, "No you are! You are Mirio-san!" She was silent for a moment before she sniffed a bit and giggled, "But y-yeah, I guess this didn't exactly go like I thought it would?"

Mirio raised an eyebrow with a tired smirk, yawning away from the phone before putting it back to his ear, "How did you think this would go?"

Silence for a moment, before a tired sigh sounded, "…I don't know…my head was just so…noisy and I just…acted on instinct and called your number."

Hearing that caused a thought to occur in Mirio's head, making him raise another eyebrow, "Wait, now that I think about…why didn't you talk with Midoriya? Or um…" He snapped his fingers trying to remember the one that stuck to Izuku's side whenever they were in UA, smiling when he remembered, "Or Uraraka-san! They're the ones taking care of you aren't they?"

"I…" She sounded sad again for an instant before she sighed, "I didn't want to bother them again over t-the same n-nightmare for three days straight…they've done so much for me and I don't…you know…"

He mulled this over for a moment before his smile turned a bit sad, thinking of his tired father Sir Nighteye, both working themselves to the bone to help him these past few months, and how guilty he felt when his father turned in early today, "Yeah, I know." He sighed and rubbed his eyes roughly, trying to keep awake, "And I also know that no one at that school thinks of you as a burden, especially not those two," He smiled more widely, "So you shouldn't feel bad about asking them for help…they'll gladly give it, no matter what."

"…Okay."

"But still," He stretched and sat up a bit to lean again on his head post, "So long as you want to talk to someone, you might as well keep talking to me, right?"

She giggled again, "Only if it's okay with you Mirio-san…you don't have anything planned tomorrow?"

"Nothing too big," A white lie, he did have something, but he didn't need to be wide awake for it, "Don't worry about it Eri-chan, what do you want to talk about."

There was a long pause, as if she had no plans past this point, which wouldn't be too surprise everything considered, before she mumbled, "Um…anything?" She cleared her throat, "Maybe just…tell me about your day? Until I fall asleep?" Another short pause, "Please?"

He laughed, "Until you fall asleep? Am I that boring?" A series of muffled giggled barreled through the phone, making him grin, "Okay, but if my dad grounds me you are duty bound to come visit me, deal?"

"Deal!"

"Alright, today was kinda boring…but a few weeks ago, me and my friend Tamaki went to this new Greek restaurant that opened next to his house and the weirdest thing happened."

"What? What happened?"

"Well, you know what moussaka is?"

"Um…no?"

"You should try it! It's really good! But you wouldn't believe what happened when my buddy took just one bite of it…"

Whatever made Izuku Midoriya wake up in the middle of the night in need of a glass of water, he wanted to punch it.

Dragging his feet down the hallway towards the elevator was a trial, more than once he felt gravity begin to overpower his legs and almost fell flat on his face, his hands flying to catch the nearby wall just in time to keep him upright.

Rubbing his face to wipe away some of the exhaustion from his face as he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the bottom floor, the thought occurred to him that he woke up almost on instinct, which made sense, since he had been woken up by Eri having an absolutely horriblenightmare two nights in a row, and chances are his body woke him up almost as an early warning to get him ready to race to her bedroom quicker.

But it seemed needless, as when he woke up no terrified screams followed, and no sense of dread filled his stomach a few seconds later either, so he settled for going down to the common room to pour himself a glass of water, and then go back up again to check up on Eri, with a second glass for her of course, once he was a bit more awake to make sure she was fine before going back to sleep.

Exiting the elevator and making a beeline for the kitchen, Izuku's tired eyes didn't catch the horned lump on the couch clutching a phone until he left the kitchen, making him nearly drop the glass from the heart attack he got.

Clamping a hand over his mouth to stop the mild scream that escaped him, he stood stock still as he watched her, seeing her remain unresponsive to his presence convinced him that she was fast asleep, and tip toeing closer confirmed it, seeing her chest steadily rise and fall with her soft breathing, Izuku smiled putting the glass of water on the table next to the couch before making to take the phone from her grip and carry her back to her bed, deciding to ask her about it in the morning after she had some rest.

When his hand was just about to grab the phone, the sound of a snore came from the other side, giving Izuku pause, "Who did you call Eri-chan?" He whispered as she continued to sleep, deaf to the world around her, he took the phone out of her limp grip, the hand she was holding it with curling up to her side, and Izuku put the phone to his ear and took a few steps away to whisper into it, "...Hello? Who is it?"

A few garbled sounds came from the other side, the sounds of someone rushing to wake up, "O-oh man Eri-chan s-" A yawn, "Sorry about that I didn't mean to fall asleep…"

Izuku recognized the voice after a moment, "Toogata-senpai?"

Confused silence followed before more tired noises came, "M-Midoriya? That you?" Another yawn, "Wow…jeez what time is it?"

Midoriya looked up to the clock on the wall, cringing a little at the display, "Right about 2:30 AM senpai."

"Yikes," He could hear him rubbing his face through the phone, "If my dad was up I would be picking out a coffin right about now…" He sighed and continued, "Anyway, is Eri-chan okay?"

Izuku looked back at her, watching her curl up on the couch a bit deeper than before, the sight making him smile warmly at her, "Yeah," He crouched down to be at her level, brush some of the hair out of her eyes, "Sound asleep…"

A chuckle leaned on his ear, "Easy there Midoriya, you're too young to sound like a dad," The boy blushed as his senior continued to laugh at him quietly through the phone, unable to bite back before Mirio yawned again, "But speaking of sleep…I should probably get back to it."

"H-hold on Toogata-senpai," Izuku got up again and took a few steps away from the sleeping girl while keeping his eyes on her, "Why were you talking to Eri on the phone?"

A tired sigh trickled out of the phone, "She called me Midoriya…she had a nightmare," The boy's eyes widen as he looked at Eri, only now just noticing the slightly blotchy red on her cheeks, "I'm guessing you know which nightmare I'm talking about."

"About Chisaki," Izuku muttered through his teeth, voice a mix of anger and sympathy, "This the third night in a row…" He rubbed his eyes, more tired than he was when he woke up earlier, "Why didn't she come to me? Or Uraraka-san?"

"She didn't come to you two because it's the third time in a row," Mirio sounded down right exhausted, "She didn't want to bother you guys again, didn't want to feel like a burden."

"But she isn't a-"

"But that's how she feels," Mirio stressed, his voice thick and stern, "And nothing will change that mindset for a good long while unless you keep telling her otherwise," He paused, "Heck, even then it might stick," His voice grew sharp, "That Bird Faced asshole spent god knows how long making her think she's worthless, that's our-" He paused again, his voice wavering for a moment, "That's your job to make sure that changes."

Izuku gulped, not knowing what to say, "Toogata-senpai…"

"Because she didn't want to bother you two…she called me, probably only because I gave her my number a while back," He sighed, "And we just…talked, about her nightmare, about how she's feeling, about how I'm feeling…and it seemed to make her feel at least a little better."

Izuku looked again at Eri, seeing her smile lightly in her sleep, "It looks like it from where I'm standing."

He chuckled, "Thanks, and after that she made me promise to keep talking to her until she fell asleep," A nervous laugh came next, "And as you can see we both ended up taking a nap."

Izuku laughed softly himself, "Yeah looks like it," His smile feel slightly as something came to mind, "…How are you feeling senpai?"

There was a very long pause on the other side, followed by a rather empty sigh, "As well as you would expect, I guess."

Izuku slapped his forehead, face twisting in apology, "Sorry, dumb question."

"It's okay Midoriya."

"And look at me!" His voice turned a bit high pitched, "I should be letting you go back to sleep! Sleep is important after all so you can't skip on it since at our age sleeping is necessary for proper growth and-"

"Midoriya you're creeping me out."

"Sorry!" He took a deep breath to calm his sudden nerves, "Sorry about that I just…I really need to get back to sleep myself, I really shouldn't be keeping you up either."

Another calm yawn was his answer, "Really, don't worry about it, I don't really have anything to do tomorrow until the afternoon," Sounds of his stretching came through the phone, "When I meet Shiretoko-san."

Izuku's eyes widened, "Oh? So you're actually going to take Nighteye-san's advice?"

Another pause, "Yeah, meeting another hero who," He stopped for a heavy second, "Also lost her quirk might help me…make sense of it, make me feel a little less alone in this."

"You're not alone senpai," Was Izuku's immediate response, "You know that you just need to call and anyone in UA would be right there to-"

"Relax Midoriya," He stated casually, "You really don't have to worry about me," His voice gain an edge of confidence, "So long as even a single little girl is cheering him on, the mighty Lemillion can never lose!" A soft laugh rose up from the phone, making Izuku grin without noticing, after a second Mirio let out one last chuckle, "Good night Midoriya, tell Eri-chan I said the same to her."

"Good night Toogata-senpai." Midoriya hung up, putting the phone back in its place and crouched down again to be at Eri's level, only this time he hesitated a bit, his hands hovering over her for a minute before he dropped one to his side and used another to shake her slightly, "Eri-chan…Eri-chan wake up…"

Slowly she opened her eyes, blinking vaguely in his general direction for a few seconds before her face stretched into a smile, "Hey Papa…" A blush burned his face right as she called him that, he still wasn't used to the fairly recent habit of her calling him "Papa", and her calling Ochako "Mama" only made it worse, but he was glad she only did that when she was really tired, like she was now, "Is it time to wake up?"

He smiled and shook his head, "No Eri-chan, I just wanted to check up on you," He was quiet for a second, reaching out to brush some hair out of her face, smiling softly, "Did you have another nightmare?"

Her face twisted tiredly for a moment before she sighed and made to bury her face in the couch cushion, "Yeah Papa…a real bad one again…" She looked at him oddly, "How'd you know?"

He gestured with his head to the phone, "Talked with Toogata-senpai, he told me you talked with him, right?"

She nodded, looking away.

He didn't talk for a moment, "He also said you talked with him instead of me or Uraraka-san because you thought you would bother us," He saw her burying her face deeper in the cushion, reaching out with one hand to pet her head, "And that's not true, no one here is bothered by you, or thinks you're a burden," He kept petting her until she turned slightly to look at him with one eye, "Everyone here loves you Eri-chan, and no matter what, if you need anything, all you need to do is ask any one of us, and we'll do our best."

She was quiet before she sniffed softly, followed by a yawn, "Promise?"

His smile turned into a grin, "Promise." He let out a breath, "Alright, it's getting pretty late, so you and I both need to get back to bed." He noticed her worrying her fingers, smiling, "Need anything before we do Eri-chan?"

"No," Was the instant response before she shook her head, "Well, I mean yeah I…" She took a deep breath before she sat up on the couch and looked down at her feet, "Can I…sleep with you again tonight Papa?"

His grin doubled, "Of course you can Eri-chan, you can sleep with me for as long as you need," He gave her a thumbs up, "That's a promise."

She giggled before yawning again, wrapping her arms around Izuku's neck as he picked her up and began walking towards the elevator, feeling extra sleepy by the time he had pressed the button for their floor, and sound asleep by the time the doors closed.

Her sleep was blank and dreamless, at least for tonight. And whenever the next nightmare comes to creep at her mind, she rested a bit easier knowing that two heroes stood at the ready to face it.

She put her head to her pillow with much more calm, knowing that Lemillion and Deku were ready to help her, and all she would need to do is ask.


End file.
